Librivox recording of The Parenticide Club, by Ambrose Bierce.

Read by Peter Yearsley.

Includes four stories: My favorite murder -- Oil of Dog -- An Imperfect Conflagration -- The Hypnotist.

For more free audiobooks, or to become a volunteer reader, please visit librivox.org.

M4B audiobook of Complete Book


This audio is part of the collection: The LibriVox Free Audiobook Collection
It also belongs to collections: Audio Books & Poetry; Community Audio

Artist/Composer: Ambrose Bierce
Date: 2005-12-27
Source: Gutenberg e-text #3715
Keywords: librivox; audiobook; literature

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

Individual Files

Write a review
Downloaded 12,013 times Reviews
Average Rating:

Reviewer: Timothy Ferguson - - September 14, 2011
Subject: Eerie and grumsome, with a black streak of humor
An excellent book, well read.

Reviewer: gl1200phil - - November 2, 2010
Subject: Mr Bierce master of horror!
Mr Bierce has a great style in weaving a horror story. His direct, concise manner, tells his tale with a literary economy devoid of over embellishment or aggrandizement (as demonstrated by the writer of this review) or the usage of run-on sentences, (me, again) seldom seen in the literary world, especially at the time of his career in the late 19th and early 20th century. (if I tried I bet I could do a thousand word review and do it with one sentence... maybe next time...) His dark manner conveys horror without the need to use graphic images or other gratuitous measures. I guess in my own overly verbose manner I'm trying to say, "Hey, these stories are great! Anyone who likes tales of the macabre should thoroughly enjoy these!" (but heck, then the spotlight wouldn't be shining on me! what a great vehicle of egotism and an ability to turn a review into a self promotion! I bet The Donald would approve!)

What do you expect from a reviewer who writes and receives no renumeration? Oops, that's like when the libraries went from the Dewey Decimal System, to the Library of Congress System... I mean without REMUNERATION.

Mr Yearsley is a reader with few equals! I would think Mr Bierce would be proud to have such a fine reader to tell his tales!

{anybody up for reviewing the reviews??}
Please accept my apologies, I'm in some kind of wacky mood tonight or maybe it's an early sign of senile dementia!

Reviewer: mikezane - - October 11, 2010
Subject: Holy smokes why did I download this one???
Okay, the stories are eerie, and if you want nightmares, well, you picked the right story. Its creepy alright. You got your perfect mix of cannabalism, revenge, and other general weirdness. This is a series of short stories linked by the common theme of killing one's parents. Somebody REALLY didn't like eating their broccoli or something...

The reader is great; his cadence reminds me of Hannibal Lector discussing eating livers with Chianti and fava beans.

Reviewer: Pyrodin123321 - - August 3, 2010
Subject: Good little horror tales!
I liked these short stories they remind me of the masters of horror series movies.

There aren't any racial slurs, just words most people don't know or use because of the social stigma associated with the "N" word

N*****head
1.(nautical) A bollard made from an old cannon.
2.An isolated part of a coral reef.
3.The coneflower.
4.hard tussock on tundra; often moss

It is just words people used back then, they weren't being intentionaly racist.

Reviewer: jxchristopher - - May 8, 2010
Subject: Bierce at his creepiest
Chilling tales from a master of chilling tales. All well-read. "Oil of Dog," particularly, has to be one of the most disturbing stories ever penned.

Go LibriVox!

Reviewer: Dwnflfan - - May 6, 2010
Subject: Not my taste
No stars for the stories they were earned by the reader who did an excellent and chilling job.

The stories are ghoulish in nature so if you like that sort of thing I suppose I'd recommend these to you.

Reviewer: notmyname - - April 15, 2010
Subject: Sick but funny
This collection is pretty twisted -- four brief stories of casual murder. Not something to listen to in public, due to violence and a couple of out-of-date racial slurs.

Peter Yearsley reads everything well. The sound quality is occasionally a bit off. I would have liked to have the four stories separated onto different tracks, but they're short enough that it doesn't matter too much.